I have two numbers for you: 69.3 and 67.5.

Those were the average strokes taken, per round by the Top 20 and Top 4, respectively, PGA Golf Professionals during 2003. Now a two-stroke differential might not sound like much, and in fact, for those of you who don't follow golf, it really isn't.

But check out the next two numbers: 3.6 and 6.3.

As in 3.6 million dollars earned on average, by a Top 20 PGA Pro compared to someone in the Top 4 who earned 6.3 million. So if you were one of the top four golfers in the world, you earned roughly twice the amount of money than if you finished in spots 5 through 20.

Quick review: If you have an average score of 69.3 strokes, you earned $3.6M for your work. If you scored just two strokes better, you earned $6.3M. (Not a bad payoff for performing just a little better, relatively speaking, than the next person behind you.)

So what do golf and real estate have to do with each other? Everything.

I like to think of it as the Theory of (Sales) Relativity, and it simply says this: The amount of "extra" work you put into your business, relative to that of your competition, directly translates into a revenue figure that is two to three times more than everyone else.

In other words, in the highly competitive real estate industry, everyone is working hard, showing homes and farming for prospects. But if you can accomplish just one more thing on a regular basis, relative to what everyone else is doing, then your income will be two to three times higher than that of your competition.

Now before everyone starts yelling, "I already work six days a week! I can't work any harder," notice what I said. If you can accomplish just one more thing, relative to what everyone else is doing, then your income will be two to three times higher than that of your competition.

That doesn't mean working longer hours per se, but getting more done while you're there. It doesn't mean working seven days a week for the next month, but rather staying an extra ten minutes when you're just about ready to go home, and doing something productive.

That's the time when you're getting ahead of the competition. That's the time where if you accomplish just one more task, make one more contact, or schedule one more listing presentation, you'll dramatically impact your revenue figures.

So what are some examples of a few "extras" you could be doing? Here are three of my favorites.

Published: February 20, 2004

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As a popular speaker and author of the resource How to Get More Business in Today's Tough Market, Brian specializes in helping busy agents get more leads and close more deals - even in a market as "challenging" as this. For a free report on 2 Easy Ways to Get More Business in Today's Tough Market, just email my office and we'll send it right over.